King Faisal’s Visit to Japan

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, a great man of Ummah, who gave a great support to Islamic Da’wah in Japan, which is still going to date.

Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975. King Faisal was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1906. He is the third son of the Kingdom’s founder, King Abdul Aziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud. His grandfather taught him the Quran and the principles of Islam by the age of nine.

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

King Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia visited Japan in May 1971 to launch the most important stage in the history of Saudi-Japanese relations. During his visit, King Faisal met Japanese Muslim, supervised and supported the Islamic activities and Da’wah in Japan.

King Faisal met a number of Japanese Muslim representative including Muslim representative from Korea. After that, the president of ‘Muslim Student Association in Japan’, Dr. Abdul Basit Al Sebai, requested the King Faisal to dispatch the professor at Riyadh University, who became later the chairman of Islamic Center Japan, Dr. Salih Samarrai, to Japan, to help Da’wah work in Japan, and he kindly granted the request in 1973.

King Faisal also supervised the translation project of the Qur’an to Japanese which was undertaken by Umar Mita, and he allotted a large sum of money to this project. In 1973, King Faisal assisted by late Hasan Al Shaikh the minister of education dispatched the author of the present work to help the da’wah activities in Japan along with six other persons, namely Khalid Kiba (Japanese), Asad Qurban Ali, the son of the late Abdul Hay Qurban Ali who founded Tokyo Mosque, Dr. Abdul Basit Al Sebai (Egyptian), Ali Al Zubee (Syrian), Abdur Rahman Siddiqi (Pakistani) and Musa Muhammad Umar (Sudanese). They had all studied in Japanese universities and had undertaken major Islamic activities in Japan. This team set up the first integrated Islamic Center in collaboration with other Japanese and foreign dignitaries who are active in Dawah, such as Umar Mita who translated the meanings of Holy Qur’an into Japanese, Abdul Kareem Saito, Mustufa Komura, Abdul Muneer Watanabe, Tamim Dar Muhit, Umar Daraz Khan, Ali Hasan Al Samni, Matloob Ali and Ainan Safa.

Sheikh Hasan bin Abdullah Al Sheikh was a great help to King Faisal Bin to support the various activities of Islamic Center-Japan and Islamic da’wah in Japan. The late Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz also played a major role in this regard. In fact, these two men helped shape the destiny of Islamic da’wah in Japan. May Allah reward them for their efforts.

Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, stands under umbrella in May 1971 during his visit to Japan.

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia with Emperor Showa of Japan (Tokyo, 1971, May).

King Faisal with the representative of Japanese Muslims and Korean Muslims in Tokyo, 1971.